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Posted on June 18, 2008 by thespiritdog

I’ve been meaning to do a post on a comment I received a while ago. I think I had wrote something about why dogs jump up on us. I had mentioned that they jump up on us, because when they meet another animal, they greet each other nose to nose or face to face.

In the reply comment about the post, the person was pretty adamant, that dogs meet nose to butt. Which is a common misconception. The reason for this is, we see them sniff each others noses, but what we really remember is the dogs sniffing each others heiny. We usually laugh at that, and make some kind of semi witty remark.

At the time, I didn’t feel there was a need for me to go into more specific details on the subject. But now, I realize I do.

To be real precise, on how dogs greet each other. I have the following information for you.

First we will start off with two dogs, that are well socialized or just very comfortable dogs. When they first meet each other, they start of with a quick sniff of each others noses. Then they will parallel each other, ( go side to side), working their way towards the rear. But wait, what do they do before they sniff each others butt ? Anybody….. Before they sniff each others heiny, they will lower their head, just in front of the other dogs rear leg and get a good smell of that dogs private area. Before finishing up with the butt smell.

So technically the meet and greet is, Nose, private area, butt.

If it’s a comfortable dog, and a not so comfortable dog. Pretty much the same thing, except the not so comfortable dog, will initially try and get some quick sniffs, if he thinks the other guy is not paying attention to him, before he becomes relaxed with the new guy.

Now if it’s two nervous dogs, there’s not going to be any problem’s. Because the owners are not going to let those guys get close enough to each other, to meet. Often in these scenarios, the dog owners aren’t real comfortable with other dogs. Which their dog picks up on, and unfortunately reinforces that dogs fears.

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I’m not really telling you guys anything you haven’t already seen. The only difference is, its my passion observing animal behaviors. And although you might not think so, you guys already know some of the things I’ve been teaching you about dog behavior. I’m just helping you realize, what you already know.